High resolution telescope including an array of elemental telescopes aligned along a common axis and supported on a space frame with a pivot at its geometric center
Patent 5108168 Issued on April 28, 1992. Estimated Expiration Date: 
May 16, 2010. Estimated Expiration Date is calculated based on simple USPTO term provisions. It does not account for terminal disclaimers, term adjustments, failure to pay maintenance fees, or other factors which might affect the term of a patent.
May 16, 2010. Estimated Expiration Date is calculated based on simple USPTO term provisions. It does not account for terminal disclaimers, term adjustments, failure to pay maintenance fees, or other factors which might affect the term of a patent.Patent References 2457543 3502387 3507547 Telescope cluster Pneumatic drive for solar concentrators Synthetic aperture multi-telescope tracker apparatus Drive assembly for astronomical telescope Very large optical telescope Patent #: 4776684 InventorsAssigneeApplicationNo. 524118 filed on 05/16/1990US Classes:359/419, With plural optical axes359/350, HAVING SIGNIFICANT INFRARED OR ULTRAVIOLET PROPERTY359/429, With line of sight adjustment359/577, LIGHT INTERFERENCE359/618SINGLE CHANNEL SIMULTANEOUSLY TO OR FROM PLURAL CHANNELS (E.G., LIGHT DIVIDING, COMBINING, OR PLURAL IMAGE FORMING, ETC.)ExaminersPrimary: Henry, Jon W.Attorney, Agent or FirmForeign Patent References
International ClassesG02B 023/04G02B 023/06 G02B 023/16 G02B 007/20 AbstractA large effective-aperture, low-cost optical telescope with diffraction-limited resolution enables ground-based observation of near-earth space objects. The telescope has a non-redundant, thinned-aperture array in a center-mount, single-structure space frame. It employes speckle interferometric imaging to achieve diffraction-limited resolution. The signal-to-noise ratio problem is mitigated by moving the wavelength of operation to the near-IR, and the image is sensed by a Silicon CCD. The steerable, single-structure array presents a constant pupil. The center-mount, radar-like mount enables low-earth orbit space objects to be tracked as well as increases stiffness of the space frame. In the preferred embodiment, the array has elemental telescopes with subaperture of 2.1 m in a circle-of-nine configuration. The telescope array has an effective aperture of 12 m which provides a diffraction-limited resolution of 0.02 arc seconds. Pathlength matching of the telescope array is maintained by a electro-optical system employing laser metrology. Speckle imaging relaxes pathlength matching tolerance by one order of magnitude as compared to phased arrays. Many features of the telescope contribute to substantial reduction in costs. These include eliminating the conventional protective dome and reducing on-site construction activities. The cost of the telescope scales with the first power of the aperture rather than its third power as in conventional telescopes.Other References
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